DHi Interns and CLASS Fellows Skills

What does it take to support Digital Scholarship from the liberal arts perspective?

Our institutions are grappling with the myriad of possibilities presented by knowledge access, use, and development in the digital realm. Digital scholarship involves approach (research methods), dissemination (contextualization, publication), and management (discovery, persistence, preservation). Supporting all of these facets can be challenging for a small Liberal Arts College, but doing so provides rich opportunities for significant undergraduate involvement within the research process, which has long been a hallmark of liberal education. The mission of the Digital Humanities Initiative at Hamilton College outlines the importance of undergraduate research, especially in the humanities: DHi creates opportunities for new interdisciplinary models and methods of collaboration between faculty and students. These activities support a fundamental shift in humanities research, leveraging the potential of technology to access and manipulate rich media collections in ways that increase collaborative scholarship (not only within Hamilton humanities but also, potentially, with other institutions around the world) and lead to the generation of new knowledge. DHi promotes a fundamental shift in the humanities through new interdisciplinary models and methods of collaboration between faculty and student-scholars, as co-researchers and co-creators of new knowledge. DHi supports innovative inter and multidisciplinary research while integrating that research with teaching at the undergraduate level and with programs designed for a larger public.

What roles do students play in these Digital Humanities/Digital Scholarship goals?

DHi has developed several models to integrate undergraduates in collaborative research experiences:

Our Culture, Liberal Arts, and Society (CLASS) fellows program (http://www.dhinitiative.org/projects/class) provides students with skills training in digital literacies through intensive research and scholarship coupled with two unique internship experiences. In the summer between sophomore and junior years, students work alongside a faculty member and the DHi CDT project team (http://www.dhinitiative.org/community/collectiondev) as a co-collaborator on a proposed project. It is required that collaborative research in the digital humanities be the primary focus of the student's summer work – the equivalent of a full-time job – typically for 11 weeks ($4000 stipend per student for summer). In the summer between junior and senior years, CLASS, in partnership with the Career Center, offers undergraduate students an intensive professional development experience and provides a comprehensive overview of work in their respective fields of interest (budget varies based on remote paid or unpaid internship, DHi and/or Career Center subsidizes internship on a case by case basis). The second internship experience is chosen by the student from an agreed upon list of pre-approved opportunities with cultural organizations and/or multi-media business entities. After their second internship experience students are prepared to enter employment and/or graduate study having mastered a range of new digital literacies and understanding of research methods in the humanities.

DHi Interns are paid hourly wages based on their skill sets and experience. DHi Interns develop one or more core areas of skill sets that integrate understanding of research approach/method with the digital technologies associated with that approach. DHi Interns start at an entry level, perhaps with no existing skills, but with interest in working on a research project. DHi interns who work with us for one or more years begin training other students and working across projects. These students are given increasing responsibility across projects and become our Paraprofessional DHi Interns.

Experiental Learning & DHi: What are the skill sets these students need to be integrated meaningfully in research with faculty?

Collaborative research with faculty is the primary goal of all experiential learning/research opportunities for students in DHi. These undergraduate research experiences reinforce, extend, and deepen the classroom experience by integrating students into interdisciplinary humanities-based faculty research over extended periods. There are two structures for students to enter research projects, as DHi Interns at any point in the year or as undergraduate scholars through our formal fellowship program. Culture, Liberal Arts, & Society Scholars (CLASS - http://dhinitiative.org/projects/class) program provides 15 months of dedicated time, expert consultants, and project development for research students with a faculty researcher. DHi research models parallel the undergraduate research structures available for science undergraduates but do so with emphasis on interdisciplinary digital humanities methods. DHi research students make meaningful contributions to complicated research projects. In the process, they learn digital research methods and technologies and develop digital scholarship skills.

DHi instructs students in the research methods and skill sets as they need them to be integrated meaningfully in research with faculty. DHi Interns develop core areas of skill sets that originate from the needs of the DHi research project they are working on and then also learn across skill sets as research projects evolve over time. In the past 7 years DHi research has integrated the following general research methods and skill sets:

o Digital technology skills include: Field to Archive digital video and audio collection, delivery, and data management. These skills include Production - operating A/V equipment in a variety of field situations to obtain the highest quality audio/video recordings possible; Postproduction - audio/video editing to combine media recordings and edit for public; Delivery of appropriately encoded video interview for web display and export of a preservation file for archive (high quality archive file); Data Management of video/audio/transcripts for each interview and initial metadata for each interview.

SNAP Nathan Goodale’s & Petra Elfstrom (CLASS Fellow 2016) – documentary video project communicating Nathan’s research process from field to lab. When finished, this documentary will be shown at community events in the Slocan Valley research area to help local and indigenous first nations understand the research and how it relates to their cultural heritage and archeological history. See interview with Petra Elfstrom from ILiADS 2016 Summer Institute at https://vimeo.com/channels/1123340/180588098

Voices from the Water’s Edge 10 year Post-Katrina NOLA Interviews – A sample of these oral histories is available at the DHi Vimeo Channel https://vimeo.com/channels/998130

Empathy & Social Justice archives – new project Fall 2017 of first person perspectives on education in development - Breland & LaDousa

· Cataloging and Metadata for digital research collection development

o Methods include: basic understanding of data management and digital preservation goals, conceptual understanding of server and systems approaches to organization of information, conceptual understanding of digital preservation issues in short and long term data management.

o Digital technology skills include: Digitization workflows by type of object being digitized, metadata schema, controlled vocabularies, metadata entry, OxygenXML software application, Google spreadsheets and organization of file. Cataloging process for analog objects that will be digitized. Basic understanding of how analog and digital derivatives will be related to each other over time.

§ The American Prison Writing Archive http://www.dhinitiative.org/projects/apwa. Doran Larson (PI). Most recently, the development of a “transcription tool” to transcribe handwritten essays directly on the archive Will Rasenberger (CLASS Fellow).